FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -The man on the mound when the Red Sox won last year’s World Series thinks they’re the favorites this year.
“If we’re not the team to beat,” Jonathan Papelbon said Thursday, “I’d like to know who is. I think that our No. 1 thing is to stay healthy. If we do that, I don’t know who can really compete with us.”
Boston’s closer retired the last five batters of the 2007 season in the 4-3 win at Colorado that gave the Red Sox their second world championship in four years, both in four-game sweeps.
They made very few changes in the offseason, although starter Curt Schilling is expected to be sidelined at least until the All-Star break with a shoulder injury for which he planned to start rehabilitation on Friday.
Schilling won Game 2 of last year’s World Series.
After it was over, Papelbon didn’t give much thought to being a champion.
role of being remembered as a person who could go out there and repeat it.”
The plain-speaking Papelbon addressed other issues in his first interview after reporting to spring training Thursday:
-On Roger Clemens’ appearance at Wednesday’s congressional hearing: “I feel sorry for him,” Papelbon said. “Hopefully, it can help us clean the game up, regardless if he did or regardless if he didn’t” use performance-enhancing drugs.
-On the Irish Jig he did when Boston clinched its first AL East title in 12 years: “I might come up with something new, though, stay tuned. Last year after we won it I was in the hotel. We were partying with (David) Ortiz. Ortiz was sitting there trying to show me how to do the break dance and he fell over and he didn’t know what he was doing.”
-On the ball used for the final out of the Series that he said his dog ate: “A guy in Mississippi was interviewing me,” Papelbon said. “He kept (talking about) this ball. I said, ‘Man, my dog ate it.’ … If you believe it, you believe it. If you don’t, you don’t. What can I say?”
Besides Papelbon, pitchers Schilling and Tim Wakefield and first baseman Kevin Youkilis were among the players who showed up at camp Thursday, the reporting date for pitchers and catchers. Position players must report by next Wednesday.
Another new arrival could keep pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka from joining his teammates in Japan from March 19 to March 26 for two exhibition games and two regular-season games. His wife is pregnant and due in late March.
“We kind of know what we’ll do,” manager Terry Francona said. “We have Plan B.”
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